Key Highlights:
- Team Falcons has ended its competitive Dota 2 programme after almost three years, citing long-term strategy and operational sustainability.
- The unchanged five-player roster finished with 799 games together, 523 wins and the all-time record for most games played by one Dota 2 five-man line-up.
- Falcons leaves after winning The International 2025 and earning around $7.46 million in Dota 2 prize money, while several players now face uncertain futures.
After almost three years in Dota 2, Team Falcons has withdrawn from the competitive scene and released the roster that won The International 2025.
In its official departure statement, the Saudi Arabian esports organisation says the decision followed a strategic review of its multi-title plans for 2026 and beyond. Falcons is shifting resources towards esports ecosystems offering what it describes as “greater strategic alignment and long-term operational sustainability”.
Falcons also says it is supporting its players, coaches and staff as they move towards their next opportunities.
That wording fits a broader shift towards sustainability across competitive gaming, something explored recently in our esports wins and losses of 2026. Organisations are increasingly being forced to balance competitive ambition against the cost and long-term stability of individual esports ecosystems.
Team Falcons entered Dota 2 in November 2023 with Oliver “Skiter” Lepko, Stanislav “Malr1ne” Potorak, Ammar “ATF” Al-Assaf, Andreas “Cr1t-” Nielsen and Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu. Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling joined as coach in January 2024.
Remarkably, that five-player line-up remained unchanged until its final match.
Falcons eventually played 799 games with the same roster and won 523 of them, producing a 65.46% win rate. The team broke a record previously held by Alliance for the most games played together by a single five-man Dota 2 line-up during ESL One Birmingham 2026.
The stability translated into trophies almost immediately.
Falcons won BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 before adding DreamLeague Season 22, ESL One Birmingham 2024 and DreamLeague Season 23 during a dominant first half of the year. Further victories followed before the team reached its peak in September 2025.
The International 2025 ended with Falcons defeating Xtreme Gaming 3-2 in Hamburg to lift the Aegis of Champions. It became the organisation’s biggest Dota 2 achievement and secured more than $1.22 million in prize money from the tournament alone.
The International itself has been part of Dota 2’s competitive identity for well over a decade. When The International 2013 began, its prize pool had passed $2.7 million and early broadcasts were already attracting more than 400,000 concurrent viewers.
Falcons also leaves behind an unusually large financial footprint for an organisation that competed in Dota 2 for less than three years.
Liquipedia’s current organisation earnings table places Team Falcons at around $7.46 million in Dota 2 prize money, ranking sixth among organisations across the game’s competitive history. Falcons also ranked first for annual Dota 2 prize earnings in both 2024 and 2025, collecting approximately $3.38 million and $3.29 million respectively.
I think that makes the reason for leaving particularly notable. Falcons is not departing after an unsuccessful experiment; it is walking away from one of the most successful and stable competitive programmes it has ever built because the organisation believes other esports now offer a better long-term fit.
Results had nevertheless declined after the TI 2025 victory.
FISSURE PLAYGROUND 2 in November 2025 became Falcons’ final tournament win. The team did not claim another Tier 1 title during calendar 2026, although it reached the final of 1win Essence II in August before losing 3-0 to Team Liquid.
The International 2026 then became the roster’s final tournament.
Falcons advanced from the group stage in Shanghai before beating Vici Gaming to reach the playoffs. Nigma Galaxy sent the defending champions into the lower bracket, where Team Liquid won 2-1 to eliminate Falcons in seventh-eighth place.
The end of the roster was already expected before the organisation confirmed its complete Dota 2 departure.
Cr1t- said during TI 2026 that the tournament would probably be the last event for the five-player roster together. After elimination, he also described the event as probably his final International, although his wording stopped short of a definitive retirement announcement at the time.
Aui_2000 has since retired. The three-time Aegis winner said the constant travel and lifestyle involved in professional Dota had become too much and that he wanted to explore other parts of life.
The remaining players have not all confirmed their next destinations.
Malr1ne has, however, said on stream that he expects to continue playing alongside ATF after the Falcons split. No new organisation was named, while the futures of Skiter and Sneyking also remain unconfirmed.
For Team Falcons, The International 2026 therefore closes more than just a roster cycle. The organisation is leaving Dota 2 entirely after a run that produced a world championship, multiple Tier 1 trophies and the longest-lasting five-player line-up in the game’s professional history.
